If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Life is waiting?

Tom got back to me promptly after I placed my order. The hammock will ship on Friday. I can't wait to set it up in the back yard and try a night out in the cold. I've pulled out my down bag, pads, so I am ready to go! Oh yes and my long undies?

Set up today

Set the hammock up today in the back yard. Apologies for lack of photos. It was -15c. Although I set up inside using different add ons, clips, and so on, outside, I found the basic stock setup the easiest. Can't figure out what the complaints are. Later, I napped for an hour in the hammock, using a couple of blue closed cell foam underpads, and a MEC down bag. I was quite comfortable.

My only complaint is that the hammock doesn't feel very wide, but then being inside a mummy bag doesn't feel any wider.

Just to get a feel for the effect of hang angle, lengthen the rope by more than you'd likely wind up with, say by 30cm / 12" on one side, or in total split between both. (I like to put marks on my line, giving a measure of how much change I am making.)

Then get back in, turn a bit to one side, stick out a knee and turn your body to a comfortable diagonal.

The tighter the hang --after a point -- the tighter the shoulder squeeze; so substantial relaxation shows you how much freedom from that feeling you can get. On a shorter and narrower hmmk, you'll run out length doing this, but unless you are yourself tall, this limit should not arise soon.

Like canoebie, I've had good luck using my Claytor Diamond Fly with my Warbonnet Blackbird. The Warbonnet Blackbird is much longer than the Claytor Jungle Hammock so the diamond fly will be plenty for the jungle hammock. Keep us posted on how it works out and welcome.

Angles are a challenge to discern from oblique photos. Well +-15 degrees.

But, it looks like your hammock is very taut, with the trees very far apart. Of course, if the beast is unoccupied and you are taking the picture, it will be entirely different when loaded.

You'll find lots in this forum on, well, pre-stretching of the stock straps, if you are using them. Much of that isn't stretching at all, but getting the constuctional slack out. (In fact, most folks on HF are truly hard-core, using straps or rope that have both minimal initial slack and almost no residual stretch or elongation).

First night out in the hammock

Although I hung the hammock up a few nights ago, with New Years and family, etc. I didn't spend a full night out, though I napped in it during the day. Well last night I headed out and spent a full night in the hammock. I had put a couple of blue underpads between the layers, then laid in an older synthetic fill bag on top of that. I wore two pairs of socks, polyprop underwear, poly overwear on my bottom half, two poly tops, a down vest, and a polar fleece for the top half, with a balaclava for my head, all snugged inside a down mummy. Needless to say I was quite comfortable. Woke only once at about 3:30 for nature's call, then back to sleep till 8:00. The wind catching the tarp disturbed my sleep from time to time, and I could sense it dipping down in temperature during the night. I am attaching a photo of the thermostat taken this a.m.

Oddly, though living in my house for the last 21 years, and having tented on the lawn in the summer, this was the first time I slept in the back treed part of the lot. It was wonderful... thanks to you folk on hammock forum for bringing to life a whole new experience.